Gun.



J. B. SEMPLE.

GUN.

APPLICATION FILED 0m. 2a, 1914.

1,218,706. Patented Mar. 13, 1917.

WITNESSES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN B. SEMPLE, 0F SEWICKLEY, PENNSYLVANIA.

GUN.-

To all whom it may concern:

lie it known that I. Jonx B. SnMrLn, residing at Sewickley, in thecounty of Alle' gheny and State of lelmsylvania, a citizen o'r'ihelnited States. have invented or discovered certain new and usefulimprovements in (inns, of which improvement the following is as|weilication.

.\l invention relates to guns of small caliber whose bullets. because oftheir small size. are incapable of carrying ellicient tracers. andconsists in combining with such a gun a second gun of such caliber thatits projectiles are capable of carrying cliicien't tracers, and in socoordinating the two guns that they shall range in accord one withanother. y

The invention has present value in making available to macl'iine-gunoperation the benefits which attend the use of tracers, or insuperadding to the advantage which the use of tracers affords (that ofquickly and surely finding the range of such an isolated mark as anair-craft) the advantages of a machine gun (ammunition of relativelysmall bulk, light weight, and small cost, and ability to fire asuccession of missiles with great rapidity.)

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a plan view of a machine guncombined, according to my. present invention, with a gun of largercaliber, and Fig. 2 is a view 7 of the same structure in side elevation.

The machine gun, 1,, and the gun of larger caliber, 2, are shown to bemounted on a common standard or base 3, and to be movable therein, thatthe guns may be trained at will in any direction. It is requisite of thelarger gun 2 that its projectiles be capable of carrying tracers eithernight or day A convenient size for this gun is the one-pounder orthree-inch gun in common use. With the use of day tracers such a gun maybe trained to hit. objects in the air at a distance of .from one to twothou- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 13, 1917.

Application filed October 28, 1914. Serial No. 868,975.

equipped with tracers the range may ordinarily be got with four or liveshots from the larger gun. \Vhen the coupled guns are thus properlytrained the machine gun will begin tiring its small bullets insullicient number to obtain hits on the target.

In the matter of coincidence of trajectory, it is possible by propercontrol of certain variables (firing charge, weight of projectiles, andshape of projectile point) to have the trajectories of the two gunspractically identical throughout the eiiective range. On the other hand,ifit is desired to make no compromise in these matters and to maintainthe efliciency of both guns, then the interconnection of the two gunsmay be such that whatever the elevation, t-he'trajectories will at acertain range coincide. And, if desired, further adjustinginstrumentalities may be added, to cause that region of substantialcoincidence to approach or recede. These are matters well known to the.art,

and are mentioned here only to indicate the adaptability of my inventionto existing conditions. i

I claim as my invention:

The herein described method of finding the range of a gun which consistsin firing from a. second gun mounted to range in unison with the gunwhose range is to be found tracer equipped projectiles and changing thedirection of the said second gun according to the observations upon theflight of such tracer equipped projectiles.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

i J OHN B. SEMPLE. Witnesses:

BAYARD H. Grnus'rr, FRANCIS J. TOMASSON.

